Colin Pask is the author of Great Calculations- A Surprising Look Behind 50 Scientific Inquiries and Math for the Frightened- Facing Scary Symbols and Everything Else That Freaks You Out about Mathematics. He is an emeritus professor of mathematics and a visiting fellow and professor in the School of Physical, Environmental and Mathematical Sciences at the University of New South Wales in Canberra, Australia.
An insightful and expansive look into Isaac Newton's complex and illuminating 1687 publication on classical mechanics... Breaking the Principia down into easily digestible portions and suffusing his narrative with modern insights, Pask reveals the genius that built modern physics. --Publishers Weekly I believe the two most important works in our journey to understand how the natural world works are Darwin's Origins and Newton's Principia. But while Darwin can be read by the nonspecialist, a contemporary reader will usually struggle with Newton's unfamiliar mathematical notation. Pask's splendid book is greatly to be welcomed, making the power and elegance of the Principia accessible to the general reader. It is particularly good at clarifying the Scientific Revolution's combination of thoughtful experiments and analytic thinking, showing mathematics as nothing more--but also nothing less--than a way of thinking clearly. --Professor Robert M. May, Baron of Oxford, OM, AC, Fellow of the Royal Society